Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 22, 2024
Advanced simulations on supercomputers, led by Dr. Ke-Jung Chen of the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (ASIAA), have unveiled how the masses of the earliest stars critically influenced the characteristics of the universe's first galaxies. Published in the Astrophysical Journal, this research marks a significant advancement in understanding the early cosmos. About 2

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 22, 2024
A joint study by the University of Washington, Seattle, and Freie Universitat Berlin has found that ice grains ejected from moons orbiting Saturn and Jupiter may carry detectable signs of life. This discovery comes ahead of the upcoming space missions aiming to explore these extraterrestrial bodies more closely. Lead author Fabian Klenner, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Was

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 19, 2024
Forty-four high school teams showcased their engineering prowess at the FIRST Robotics Los Angeles regional competition, where hand-crafted robots competed in a spirited showdown. Over the weekend, the annual Los Angeles regional FIRST Robotics Competition saw a dazzling display of student ingenuity as 125-pound robots, created by 44 high school teams, navigated through a series of challen

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 15, 2024
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has once again captured the majestic beauty of Jupiter, showcasing the planet's vivid weather patterns in new images taken on January 5-6, 2024. As part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, Hubble conducts annual observations of Jupiter and its outer solar system counterparts, uncovering the dynamic cloud cover and hazes propelled by robust winds,

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 22, 2024
In a significant stride toward enhancing lunar exploration, China launched the Queqiao 2 relay satellite into lunar orbit, marking a critical step for the nation's forthcoming moon missions. The satellite, named Queqiao 2 or Magpie Bridge 2, was launched aboard a Long March 8 carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan Island at 8:31 am. Approximately 24 minutes post-lau

Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 21, 2024
If the Curiosity rover had a song stuck in her head today, she might be humming "Back to the uGVR," to the tune of The Beatles "Back in the U.S.S.R," as she drives south along the eastern edge of the upper Gediz Vallis Ridge (uGVR). The rover drove up to the uGVR last summer and investigated several rocks; now with the beautiful "Fascination Turret" section of the uGVR in sight, the team i

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 22, 2024
In a significant advancement for reusable launch vehicle technology, ISRO successfully conducted the RLV Landing Experiment (LEX-02), marking a milestone in the autonomous landing capabilities of space-returning vehicles. This experiment, carried out at the Aeronautical Test Range in Karnataka, demonstrated the vehicle's ability to autonomously correct its trajectory and land precisely on a runw

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 22, 2024
The Space Launch System (SLS) has achieved a significant milestone towards the Artemis IV mission with the readiness of its payload adapter for testing, signifying a major step for the mission's success. This adapter, critical for connecting the spacecraft to the rocket, has evolved from the design used in the first three Artemis missions and is now ready for structural evaluation. Constru

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 22, 2024
In an upcoming landmark mission, astronauts aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft will engage in a first-of-its-kind test drive during Artemis II, assessing manual control capabilities critical for future expeditions. A major segment of this mission involves the proximity operations demonstration, where astronauts will manually maneuver Orion in space, using the SLS rocket's upper stage as a reference

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 22, 2024
As part of its initiative to establish new habitats in low Earth orbit, NASA has recently observed significant advancements in the life support system of Blue Origin's Orbital Reef, a commercial space station under development. This progress stems from the completion of testing milestones vital for sustaining human life in space, highlighting the collaboration between NASA and commercial entitie